Painting with bright colors

Spring is a time of delicate colors and shimmering palettes of spring green, like a watercolor painting. The summer garden in a warm climate like central NC doesn't have that look of eternal spring seen in more northern climes; it's like a work in oils or pastels, bold colors thrown at the canvas and swirled together.

Monarda 'Raspberry Wine' with Buddleia 'Potter's Purple'
 

The Monarda creates a bold current of color in the sea of green that's the big perennial bed.
 

Its deep raspberry pink just glows
 

and it's a-buzz with activity all day long. The Carpenter Bees in particular love it.
 

 

There are swirls and eddies of 'Claire Grace' too, which from a distance looks a little dull without something bright like Phlox 'Robert Poore' to punch it up.
 

Up close is a different story.
 

I had forgotten about the Rubeckia since it was just fuzzy leaves last year; now of course, like the Phlox, I think I need more of it! I love the warm golden color, like the glow of a late summer afternoon captured in a flower.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Good news on the pony front! We jogged her yesterday and she looks to be doing much better.

This week I am joining Tracie at Fishtail Cottage for Cottage Flora Thursdays .

It's a parade!

of daylilies, stars of the June garden.

I believe this one to be 'Gentle Shepherd', as lovely in daylight
 

as it is as dusk, when it takes on a luminescent quality.
 

'Pandora's Box'
 

'Beautiful Edgings'
 

'Siloam David Kirchhoff'
 

'Jedi Blue Note'
 

 

Sun faded but still lovely
 

Love this noid
 

'Bleu Celeste', which of course isn't sky blue at all, with Commuter Daylilies.
 

 

Also still lovely when faded
 

Also love this noid, so graceful and fragrant too
 

Mokan Butterfly/ Mask of Eternity seedling
 

Another mystery daylily, with a beautiful rich pink color.
 

Screech of needle on record ~ wait, what is this doing here?

 

I love the rich warm colors but they don't go with the delicate pastels that have
gone before, not the creams and cool pinks and plum and raspberry tones.
 

Adding some 'Chocolate Splash' and 'Buttered Popcorn' will make
everybody happy. Sounds delicious doesn't it? Unfortunately deer
are finding my daylilies to be delicious too. I can't believe this
hasn't happened before, whether I'm surrounded by undeveloped
floodplain and hunters or not. I have been mixing a solution of
water and peppermint extract (approx 1 fluid ounce of extract to
3 cups of water) to spray on the daylilies and that has helped.
 

Some warm pinks will help ease the transition between cool and warm too.
 

 

 

'My Melinda'
 

 

I am planning to move 'Sparkling Orange', 'Spellbinder', and 'Paper Butterfly' to the "warm" spot in the garden as well.

I think the culprit eating the daylilies is a doe with a fawn stashed near the garden. Funny thing is there was a buck with a broken leg who practically lived in the garden for a year and he didn't eat anything. He knocked over a young Hansa polishing his antlers but that was it. The Hansa survived. Ah well these things happen. Can't expect to plant daylilies and never have any eaten by deer.

Unfortunately during the storm last weekend the horses got out and the pony sprained her ankle. We think lightening struck the rods on the shelter, or a tree behind the shelter; nothing else would cause them to run through the fence in a blind panic like that. btw you DON'T want a fence a horse can't run through, as they can get caught in it and fatally injured. The flight instinct of a horse is very strong. Their getting out had nothing to do with our earlier fence problems either. We replaced 80 fence posts last year, and I've been checking them every 6 months. They chested the boards, which are hot-wired, but a hot fence will not deter a panicked horse.

The pony doesn't have any swelling, so the problem is likely one of the ligament that support the ankle. The reason this injury doesn't usually manifest in swelling (unless it's severe), is that those supporting ligaments are overlaid by the deep and superficial flexor tendors and the suspensory ligament in back and the extensor tendon in front. The vet was out last week and prescribed paddock rest, sweating the leg at night, and two doses of Adequan a week apart. So the horses are up here in the paddock behind the house keeping me company.

Summer Color for GBBD and Cottage Flora Thursday

There is lots of summer flowers for both Garden Bloggers Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens and Cottage Flora Thursday's at Fishtail Cottage.

Commuter daylily, Purple Coneflower, rugosa with hips, and Monarda 'Raspberry Wine'

 

'Always Baroque'

 

'Beautiful Edgings' is perhaps my favorite daylily, with its delicate shadings of pink and yellow on cream.

 

The crests of the waves of the sea of green are now many different colors.

 

Mockingbirds are nesting in the Foxi Pavement rose bush.

 

It's good for the nestlings that the heat wave has broken. I was watering the seedling Baptisias last week I looked in on the nest and all three babies were panting and leaning over the edge of the nest like wilted flowers. Thankfully mama showed up just then and got back on the nest to shield them from the hot sun that was shining through the branches. When I looked back in on them later one still had its head out and was gaping. "I'm hungry!"

A delicious-looking flower with a delicious-sounding name: Raspberry Wine.

 

Especially good with a side of (daylily) Buttered Popcorn.

 

A favorite of both bees and hummingbirds, Brazilian Blue Sage, accompanied by Four o' Clocks and Buddleia 'Potter's Purple'.

 

I started with solid yellow and fushcia pink Four o' Clocks, and now there is a broken color blend of yellow and pink on the same flower

 

and a solid color blend of coral pink.

 

Indigofera is finally something in addition to Carolina Rose that grows well at the back of the big bed. It will send out its dainty sprigs of pink pea-like flowers until frost.

 

In the bed next to the neighbor's pasture, the Knockout has been covered in flowers for many weeks, and the seedling Witch Hazel has gotten quite big. I wish the neighbor's guineas would come back and eat some more of the Japanese Beetles. I've missed them the past few days. A pair has been hanging out here a lot; a dark guinea and a pearl guinea.

 

The Pickerelweed is in full bloom, surrounded by Northern River Oats, Joe Pye Weed, Hibiscus coccineus and hybrids of various sorts.

 

I love the delicate swaying seedheads of Northern River Oats; so graceful.

 

 

 

I planted the Pickerelweed but the Lizard's Tail grew there by itself, and will soon be blooming in wide swaths along with the Pickerelweed.

 

 

 

Good news ~ the Prothotary Warblers are not confining themselves to the slough by the creek this year! I heard the "squeaky wheel" song behind the horse shelter, and after walking back there and calling "pst, pst, pst" a few times ~ a siren call to a curious and fearless bird like the Prothonotary Warbler ~ I saw him. I hope to get a picture, but here is what these gorgeous little birds look like.